Meet the Gymnasts: Lizzie

Lizzie Daly, Univ, 4th year Medicine.

I started gymnastics when I was four, and enjoyed both artistic and acrobatic gymnastics. On starting high school, I found it more difficult to find the time for training so ended up taking a 10 year gap. It was Michaelmas term last year when I saw the opportunity to get involved with gymnastics again for Cuppers – a chance to have a bit of fun and represent my college (go Univ!). What started as a one -off chance to have a bit of fun ended up turning into a re-found passion for gym when I was selected for the Varsity 2020 B team competition against Cambridge.

My favourite thing about OUGym is definitely the friendly atmosphere, so anyone of any ability is welcomed and made to feel part of the club. I really appreciated this being 10 years out of practice having lost a lot of my skills I had taken for granted when I was little!

A normal training session for me, after a lot of warming up, usually starts with some floor skills followed by a bit of beam or vault. In the run up to Varsity it was really good to practice each apparatus together as a team so that we could discuss routines and have a bit of a catch up too! I would say that anyone wanting to try gym or get back into it after a bit of experience should come and try a session with OUGym – there’s great facilities and training sessions and plenty of opportunity for starting from the basics.

Of course, balancing any extracurricular activity with the academic workload of a medic takes quite a bit of organisation and thinking through – but it is definitely possible! I would say that having a regular routine of going to gym, scheduling the time to train and getting away from studying actually motivates me to work beforehand so that I can enjoy myself and make the most of each session.

As well as training, there are plenty of social events throughout the year with OUGym. One of my favourites was the women’s team social before Varsity. I was knee-deep in coursework at the time, and it was the perfect thing to take my mind off work for a few hours! The post-training casual meals together have been great fun too. All in all, I’ve had great fun with OUGym and can’t wait for what next year brings.